New Challenge: Gates of Summer
Choose a summer-related prompt or prompts from a collection of quotes and events from Tolkien's canon and his life.
SWG News
Mereth Aderthad Interview: Interview with Varda delle Stelle by Shadow
Varda delle Stelle is the featured artist for cloudyhymn's Mereth Aderthad 2025 presentation "The Design of Dragons and the Doom of the Dwarves." Shadow spoke with Varda about her own connections to the earth and concepts in cloudyhymn's presentation, her creative process, and her hopes for her Mereth Aderthad paintings.
Mereth Aderthad Interview: Interview with Kai by Shadow
Kai is the featured artist for Maglor's Mereth Aderthad 2025 presentation, "Gil-galad was an Elven King: Kingship and Personhood in the last High King of the Noldor." Shadow spoke with Kai about his wide range of interests and inspirations in the legendarium and why Maglor's presentation so intrigued him that he finished the art for it the first night.
Mereth Aderthad Interview: Interview with Reese by Dawn
Reese is the featured author for polutropos's presentation "'Kidnap Fam' and the Living Legendarium" at Mereth Aderthad 2025. Dawn spoke with reese about the silences storytellers leave, mythology, and the appeal of alternate universe fanfiction.
New & Updated Fanworks
[Writing] Star in the Darkness by StarSpray
Now a great crowd of spirits, both Elves and lingering Men, were gathered before the newest tapestry as it fell open down the wall, luminous, gold and silver threads glittering in the pale light of Mandos.
[Writing] Banked Fires Blaze by Chestnut_pod
What is it to be made for a kinder world?
[Reference] So You Want to Present at a Tolkien Conference? Giving the Presentation by SWG Newsletter Staff
Video and materials from our session on how to give a presentation at a Tolkien conference. The session covers how to practice, plan, and prepare for the presentation; what to expect on the day of the presentation; tips for participating in the Q&A; and how to plan ahead for common worries…
[Writing] High in the Clean Blue Air by StarSpray
They passed out of Lhûn and the wider coastline of Middle-earth opened up before his eyes. He had wandered those shores for centuries, and even now he felt the pull of that same wanderlust, and knew he would miss them for the rest of his life. Their wildness, the untamed waves, the rocky…
[Reference] Interview with fish by Shadow by fish, daughterofshadows
Fish is the featured artist for Stella's Mereth Aderthad 2025 presentation "Cherished antagonist, despised protagonist - a defence of Elu Thingol." Shadow spoke with fish about his creative process, the importance of both tragedy and eucatastrophe to Tolkien's works, and the appeal of "greyness…
[Writing] Set in Stone by silmalope
An artisan can never forget what she has made, for a part of her soul goes into the making. (Nerdanel character study/ficlet in six parts.)
[Reference] Interview with Varda delle Stelle by Shadow by Varda delle Stelle, daughterofshadows
As the featured artist for cloudyhymn's Mereth Aderthad 2025 presentation "The Design of Dragons and the Doom of the Dwarves," Varda delle Stelle describes her idea for this presentation as springing fully formed as Athena from Zeus's head. Varda chatted with Shadow about what drew her to this…
Current Challenge
Random Challenge
Things We Never Said
In this AU challenge, fix that moment that you always wanted to see handled differently by offering your beloved character that moment of forgiveness or redemption. Read more ...
New in References
So You Want to Present at a Tolkien Conference? Giving the Presentation by SWG Newsletter Staff
Video and materials from our session on how to give a presentation at a Tolkien conference. The session covers how to practice, plan, and prepare for the presentation; what to expect on the day of the presentation; tips for participating in the Q&A; and how to plan ahead for common worries and mishaps.
Interview with fish by Shadow by fish, daughterofshadows
Fish is the featured artist for Stella's Mereth Aderthad 2025 presentation "Cherished antagonist, despised protagonist - a defence of Elu Thingol." Shadow spoke with fish about his creative process, the importance of both tragedy and eucatastrophe to Tolkien's works, and the appeal of "greyness" in Silmarillion characters like Elu Thingol.
Interview with Varda delle Stelle by Shadow by Varda delle Stelle, daughterofshadows
As the featured artist for cloudyhymn's Mereth Aderthad 2025 presentation "The Design of Dragons and the Doom of the Dwarves," Varda delle Stelle describes her idea for this presentation as springing fully formed as Athena from Zeus's head. Varda chatted with Shadow about what drew her to this presentation, her approach to painting, and her hopes for her Mereth Aderthad work.
Featured Themed Collection
Part of our Themed Collection series for our newsletter, this collection features fiction, artwork, and essays that transcend the idea of Orcs as the enemy, instead considering their humanity.
Alliterative Verse for Arda by Rhunedhel
Part of our Themed Collection series for our newsletter, this collection features alliterative poems about Middle-earth.
Beyond the Silmarillion
[Writing] Remembrance by StarSpray
They found Elrond’s sons with Legolas and Gimli, and with Éomer King and Lady Éowyn, standing before an enormous fresco of a charging army of horsemen. “Why, isn’t that what just happened, the way it was told to us?” Sam exclaimed, looking up at it.
“No! This is a painting of the Battle…
[Artwork] Floating through the Forest River by Varda delle Stelle
Bilbo and Thorin's Company are arriving to Lake Town floating through the Forest River with the barrels
[Writing] The Wondrous Tale of the Bee-wolf by bunn
Once upon a time, JRR Tolkien wrote a fairy-tale retelling, an attempt to reconstruct an alternative version of the ancient poem called Beowulf, and he called it Sellic Spell: 'strange tale' or 'wondrous tale'.
Once upon a time, on the long road home from the Lonely…
Around the World and Web
Teitho June/July Challenge: Inheritance
The theme for the June/July Teitho challenge is "inheritance."
Kidnap Fam Survey
Polutropos is collecting survey data as part of her research on the "Living Legendarium", i.e., how the legends of Arda, from their earliest drafts by Tolkien to the posthumously published Silmarillion edited by Christopher Tolkien to the creative engagements by fans, are inherently indeterminate and mutable, inviting many and diverse interpretations.
Tolkien Native Language Appreciation Fest 2025
This Tumblr event aims to celebrate the diversity in the Tolkien fandom by giving all creators a chance to use their creativity to explore and experiment with all languages.
Russingon Week 2025
Russingon Week is a Tumblr and AO3 event for fanworks that center a romantic or queerplatonic relationship between Maedhros and Fingon.
Tolkien South Asian Week
Tolkien South Asian Week is a fandom-wide event on Tumblr to celebrate South Asian peoples, cultures, and lives through Tolkien’s Legendarium.
SWG News
New Challenge: Gates of Summer
Posted by SWG Moderators on 14 June 2025. Last updated on 14 June 2025.
Summer is a season of flourishing, when life is at its peak. It is a time of plenty, when the light lingers long and celebrations dot the calendar. As we prepare for our big Mereth Aderthad celebration in just a month's time—an event that celebrates the vibrant life of our group and all of the creators and members who have shaped its history—we turn to the topic of summer. Like summer, we hope the SWG and the creativity and fellowship between its members will be a light that endures for many years to come!
This month, challenge participants will select their own prompts from a collection of prompts related to summer. The collection includes quotes from the texts, canon events, events in Tolkien's life, and quotes from Tolkien's letters. As always, you can mix and match prompts if you want, and we encourage creative interpretations of prompts.
In honor of Pride Month, there is a special stamp available for fanworks that focus on LGBTQIA+ characters.
Thank you to Anérea for this month's banner and stamps!
You can find the prompts for the Gates of Summer challenge here.
In order to receive a stamp for your fanwork, your response must be posted to the archive on or before 15 July 2025. For complete challenge guidelines, see the Challenges page on our website.
Mereth Aderthad Interview: Interview with Varda delle Stelle by Shadow
Posted by SWG Moderators on 13 June 2025. Last updated on 13 June 2025.
Cloudyhymn's presentation The Design of Dragons and the Doom of the Dwarves posits dragons as a corruption of Dwarves, both sharing a connection to the earth but on opposing sides, similar to the relationship Tolkien sometimes described between Elves and Orcs. Varda delle Stelle, the SWG's assistant art editor, will be creating two paintings as the featured artist for cloudyhymn's presentation at Mereth Aderthad 2025. Shadow spoke with Varda about her own connections to the earth and concepts in cloudyhymn's presentation, her creative process, and her hopes for her Mereth Aderthad paintings.
You can read Shadow's interview with Varda delle Stelle here.
Mereth Aderthad Interview: Interview with Kai by Shadow
Posted by SWG Moderators on 7 June 2025. Last updated on 8 June 2025.
Kai is a Tolkien artist whose work captures both the dramatic moments of the legendarium and the moments of friendship and love between characters that drove these storied events. Kai's work often captures light and radiance, making him fitting as a featured artist for Maglor's Mereth Aderthad 2025 presentation, "Gil-galad was an Elven King: Kingship and Personhood in the last High King of the Noldor." Kai spoke with Shadow about how Maglor's topic was instantly inspiring, his range of interests over the years in the legendarium, and the meaning behind the painting he made for Maglor's presentation.
Mereth Aderthad Interview: Interview with Reese by Dawn
Posted by SWG Moderators on 7 June 2025. Last updated on 9 June 2025.
Back in March, we spoke with polutropos' about her presentation on the "kidnap fam" trope and its broad appeal in the fandom. Few episodes in the legendarium provoke such fascination and range of interpretations. Reese is the featured author for polutropos' Mereth Aderthad 2025 presentation, "'Kidnap Fam' and the Living Legendarium." Dawn spoke to Reese about her story, which is an epistolary found fiction, and the appeal of alternate universe, mythology and Tolkien and the many fruitful connections they share, the kidnap fam trope—and how the silences in all of these invite storytellers to fill the gaps.
Mereth Aderthad Interview: Interview with Dawn Felagund by Shadow
Posted by SWG Moderators on 5 June 2025. Last updated on 5 June 2025.
Dawn Felagund is the featured author for Savannah Horrell's paper "By Guile Committed: Comparing Tolkien’s Thieves to Beowulf" for Mereth Aderthad 2025. Shadow spoke with Dawn about her story for Savannah's presentation, the juggling act of creating a fanwork for the event while also organizing it, and the power of reading Tolkien as a work of history.
Mereth Aderthad Interview: Interview with Cindy Gates by Grundy
Posted by SWG Moderators on 3 June 2025. Last updated on 3 June 2025.
Fans of Tolkien will typically identify love, loyalty, nature, and hope as defining themes in his work. Less often do they see the legendarium as fertile grounds for exploring the use of science and technology. Cindy Gates, who has written under the pseudonym pandemonium_213 and retired from a scientific career last year, has written fanworks and meta for much of the SWG's history that do the opposite, presenting Middle-earth as a land where people face the same questions about science and technology that we do. Grundy spoke to Cindy about her upcoming Mereth Aderthad 2025 presentation, "Tolkien, Lunatic Physicists, and Abnegation" and the many fruitful connections between the Manhattan Project and The Silmarillion.
So You Want to Present at a Tolkien Conference? Actually Presenting!
Posted by SWG Moderators on 1 June 2025. Last updated on 14 June 2025.
Mereth Aderthad 2025 is coming in July, and we are excited to have many fans who are presenting their meta, research, and scholarship at the event! But even though Tolkien fans engage in deep research and thinking about the legendarium all the time, making the step to presenting that work at conferences can feel intimidating. Even in a field as friendly to fan and independent scholarship as Tolkien studies is, the trappings of academia remain and, unless you have academic training, these can be a barrier to participation.
To help demystify conference proposals and presentations, over the next few months, we will be holding sessions aimed at helping fans make the sideways step to Tolkien scholarship by presenting their work at a Tolkien conference. Our third and final session is about the presentation itself! The day has come. You have your paper written, your slides and handouts ... and now you stand before your audience. In this session, you will learn how to be an effective presenter. (If you missed our first two sessions, they can be found here: So You Want to Present at a Tolkien Conference? Writing the Proposal and So You Want to Present at a Tolkien Conference? Putting Together the Presentation.)
Date: Saturday, 14 June 2025
Time: 1:00 PM Eastern Time (what is this in my timezone?)
Location: RSVP to have a reminder emailed to you | Join the session here
After the session, there will be time for questions, and we will stay online for a collaborative writing session for anyone who is interested.
All are welcome to attend and participate to whatever extent they feel comfortable! (In other words, you can keep your camera off and there are no breakout rooms.)
Can't make it on June 14? We will record the session so that anyone can view it.
If you need to change your Zoom display name before or while attending, learn how to do that here.
Mereth Aderthad Interview: Interview with Grundy by Shadow
Posted by SWG Moderators on 29 May 2025. Last updated on 7 June 2025.
Grundy is one of our moderators on the SWG and best known for her fiction here on our site. However, she is also a glass artist, and this is where she is turning her attention for Mererth Aderthad 2025, as she designs a fanwork-in-glass for Cindy Gates' presentation “Tolkien, Lunatic Physicists, and Abnegation." Shadow spoke to Grundy about her inspiration on the project and long love of Tolkien.
Mereth Aderthad Interview: Interview with Azh, Admirable Monster by Shadow
Posted by SWG Moderators on 29 May 2025. Last updated on 14 June 2025.
Tolkien identified one of the major themes of his work as "the machine": the power and appropriate use of technology. Azh's found fiction "Lightborn" considers the topic of abnegation and scientific progress, based on Cindy Gates' forthcoming presentation on the subject, "Tolkien, Lunatic Physicists, and Abnegation." Shadow spoke with Azh about their story, its real-life inspiration in their work, and the sympathy that Tolkien shows even for characters who commit moral failures.
You can read Shadow's interview with Azh, Admirable Monster here.
Mereth Aderthad Interview: Interview with bunn by Shadow
Posted by SWG Moderators on 24 May 2025. Last updated on 7 June 2025.
Dragons and Dwarves are among the mysterious creatures in the legendarium, and for both, Tolkien took his own inspiration from Germanic myth, folklore, and literature. For Mereth Aderthad 2025, bunn is creating both a story and a work of art for presentations rooted in the Germanic lore of the legendarium: cloudyhymn's presentation "The Design of Dragons and the Doom of Dwarves" and Savannah Horrell's presentation "By Guile Committed: Comparing Tolkien’s Thieves to Beowulf." Shadow spoke to bunn about their work for these two presentations, the appeal of Dwarves, and the many fruitful connections between Beowulf and Tolkien's own work.
